Laments before moving on......

It's almost a year since I ended my term as a marathon organizer and I feel I need to share a couple of laments and then move on from here.

My original goal to showcase the marathon as an event unto itself fell short even with the help of a great committee and great sponsors. The marathon is the only internationally recognized foot race(i.e.Olympics) that uses the road ways as its venue. All other road races are secondary to the marathon yet here in this area its the other way around. The only way to properly showcase the marathon is to have it as a solo event. Also, because of our demographics we should only have one or two marathons a year. Run NB should take a lead with this. Developing the marathon this way would help aspiring athletes better pursue the sport and also help Canada place a marathoner on the Olympic team for the future.

My other lament is with respect to fund raisers using running venues to raise their funds. Road Running venues belong to the runners both recreational and otherwise who look to have their sport recgnized as such by the community and the media. Fund raisers do some great things to tap into disposable incomes for research needs, but they need to look to other venues such as science expos, etc that could not only generate funds but encourage people to get into science and research.

OK, I'm done. Maybe I'll get into politics from here. However, I must finish on a positive note by saying that it's been a good run and I wish Alex and other event organizers all the best in promoting this great sport of ours(running, the first sport of the human race).

Less than 2 weeks to marathon day

It's almost Thanksgiving so the marathon is just around the corner. I went out yesterday with son Sean for his last distance run before he tapers. It worked out to over an hour an a half with a couple of tough hills which showed that I'm lacking but Sean's ready and I hope all the other stalwarts are as well.

Being out of the organizing side of the event has been rather nice and allowed me to watch from the outside. Alex and company are putting together a good event and the numbers show. So, here's hoping for a good day. I'll be working the set up operations as a contract for the event. This will be a first for a local run as far as I know. If it proves to be successful and acceptable, maybe other events will do something similar.

Stay tuned.